Yakima boy dragged 80 feet by car: 'When I woke up, I felt the pain'

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Action News has an exclusive look at the recovery of the two boys run over by a car while waiting for their school bus last month. We brought you Israel Sanchez a few days after the accident. Now his younger brother Christopher is home recovering from several broken bones.

"In my mind I was just saying to myself, for the pain to be gone," Christopher said. "Because when I woke up, I felt the pain."

Christopher doesn't remember anything about the accident that put him in a Seattle hospital.

"My legs hurt a lot," he said.

Christopher suffered head trauma, broke one of his arms, both legs and some of his ribs. His clothes cover the deep scrapes and bruises across his body.

"It's been harder on Chris because he's a really active kid," their sister Cathy said. "So, he's always wanting to run around."

Christopher can't walk at all right now. He needs a wheelchair. At first, his family didn't know if he would make it.

"There's always competition between them so when he woke up we had told him, 'Israel... wants you to get strong, so you can get as strong as him.' And he woke up and like, 'I'm the strongest little kid.' We knew he was still in there. He was going to pull through," she said.

Still in bed, Christopher plays his own version of Angry Birds. He throws stuffed animals at his older brother.

Israel is up and walking, but you can still see the painful reminders of a day he says still scares him.

"I opened my eyes and the wheels were right here, and it was on my back too," Israel said.

His injuries aren't as bad as his brother's, but he still can't go back to school.

"I just wish that my arm would heal faster, but it's going to take time," he said.

Both boys are anxious for things to get back to normal. They couldn't trick or treat this year. Now, they look forward to the upcoming holidays.

Flowers still mark the exact spot where Israel and Christopher were hit.

Benjamin McKenzie is the man accused of running the two boys over and dragging them with his car. McKenizie appeared in court this week and pleaded not guilty to vehicular assault.

The family said the support from the community has been tremendous. Christopher is expected to be walking again by Christmas.